The Long Road Home
by Celestahales Smith
Summary: Cynical!Anna Road trip!AU The girls become friends through strange circumstances and decide to go on an off-the-cuff road trip. What could possibly go wrong? Elsanna. Going to be long and hopefully not too angsty. Non Incest. Pls enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

**_AN: Thank Jesus I finally started this story because elsannaheadcanons was going to kill me with all these AU's and nobody wrote it yet. Here is an unnecessarily long and probably lame fic about Elsa and Anna going on a road trip with suppressed feelings and sexual tension and cynical-ness and I'm really sorry. The first few chapters are going to be exposition and a bit of a build up before we get to the real plot of the thing. So here this is, and you could also follow me on tumblr at .com_**

_Really? This is the 5__th__ guy this week. _Elsa glanced behind the couch to see Anna dragging a brunette woman down the hallway._Oh, it's a chick tonight._Elsa rolled her eyes and continued to flick through the channels and ignored the slam of her roommates bedroom door and the click of the lock. _I'm all for rebound sex, but is she going a little overboard?_

Anna had been engaged to a man, Hans, Elsa recalled his name. The two girls had been living together for over three years but have only ever shared an hour of conversation total. The engagement had held up until Hans suddenly had broken it off two weeks ago. Elsa sometimes had spurs of thought as to why the two were even living in the same house but then she remembered Kristoff.

Her older brother was, for lack of a better word, gullible. He was great at heart, honest, and caring, but had a nasty history of people taking advantage of him. Anna, however, was not one of them. The two were truly great friends and Kristoff was happy to finally have found someone like Anna. Unfortunately the two had not worked out romantically, the friendship still lasted.

When Elsa stated to her family that she was moving out, Kristoff insisted that Anna move in with Elsa wherever she was going. He told her that she had a decent job and could handle half the rent and wouldn't be a big bother with bringing people home because of how great her relationship with Hans was, and Elsa caved. Kristoff called the feisty read head immediately and chuckled loudly and the wide grin that cracked her features when he flashed a set of keys at her.

Elsa sighed, giving up her search for decent TV at the late hour. She stood up, stretching her arms out, feeling a pop in her back. Picking up the plate and bottles that littered the coffee table, she walked into the kitchen, tossing them into the sink and trash can respectively.

She clicked the light off, telling herself that she would wash the plate in the morning and headed down the hall to her room. She forcefully pressed her hands over her ears when she walked passed Anna's room, and hurried down the rest of the hallway, her bare feet smacking loudly on the wooden floors of the apartment.

~(-_-)~

Elsa's eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright in her bed. Smelling something peculiar coming from the kitchen, she quickly threw the covers off her legs, tiptoed down the hallway and warily peeked around the corner of the wall.

To her surprise Anna was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. She was standing in front of the stove messing with what looked like scrambled eggs in a pan. On a paper plate set aside on the counter there was a large pile of cooked bacon and a sizeable amount of sausage patties.

"Elsa!" Anna turned toward the blonde so quickly she accidentally flicked a spatula full of egg at the wall.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'll head back to my room." Elsa mumbled, turning away

"No!" Anna reached for Elsa's arm. The blonde's icy blue eyes went wider than saucers, "I mean, I made enough breakfast for both of us. I figured since this is the third anniversary of us living together, we should try to be friends, or have an actual conversation, or maybe a meal together. Not that you are a bad roommate! You always pay your half of the rent on time and you don't ever do anything annoying. Come to think of it, I'm kinda the bad roommate, bringing a bunch of people home like this, you probably think I'm pretty gross for that, but I swear I'm not. I just figured, maybe you might want to get to know me."

"Uh, okay." Elsa tensed the arm that was under Anna's tight grip and the girl immediately yanked her hand back

"Did you, uh, want to join me for breakfast?"

"Sure?" Elsa stayed planted where she was, still bewildered by the bizarre occurrences of the morning so far

Anna turned around and tore a paper towel off of the roll to wipe up the mess from the wall, "So yea. Sorry. I made bacon and eggs and sausage because I didn't know which you preferred."

Elsa stammered out, "I really don't care."

"Great!" Anna smiled widely and whipped two plates from the cupboard and set them on the extremely underused dining room table, "Could you scoop those eggs onto that plate," she gestured to the plate with the bacon mountain, "and bring it over here?"

~(-_-)~

Elsa scooted a bit of egg around her plate but then set her fork down when it accidentally made a loud screech. She kept her head down, a bit of red coloring her cheeks because of her mistake.

"You okay?" Anna looked at Elsa, her platinum blonde braid twisted elegantly and draped over her shoulder, her bangs messily pushed back into the rest of her hair. The blonde glanced up, her icy blue eyes locked with Anna's

"Totally, I'm just not good with this whole thing." Elsa gestured with her fork before staring back into her plate

"The breakfast part? You never seem to get up before noon, like, ever, so yea I'd believe that." Anna saw Elsa suck in a quick breath, "Not that that is a problem. Sleeping in is totally cool."

"I meant more of the, how do you say, the social aspect? I'm not great with people." Elsa looked back up from the food on her plate

"I've lived in the apartment for _3 years_ and I've never been a bother to you? Like in any way?" Anna dropped her fork

"Well, sometimes you play your music really loud and you sing with it it's a little annoying." Anna's face dropped a bit, "Your singing isn't bad, at all actually, now that I think about it. But at midnight there are things that I'd rather be doing. Also whenever you have, uh,_ friends _over you can be a tad _vocal_. That has only recently been an issue though."

Elsa saw a strange look pass over Anna's features. Her nose crinkled causing her freckles to stand out.

_I've never looked at her long enough to notice her freckles_.

"Like I said, I'm sorry about that. I'm just trying to get over Hans."

"I'm sorry about your engagement. What I'd heard from Kristoff made him seem like a great guy."

"He was an ass." Anna took a violent bite out a bacon strip and chewed it roughly

"To break an almost three year engagement you'd have to be."

Anna laughed loudly at Elsa's words, "You're actually _really_ funny, Elsa! Why did I only decide to try this idea today?"

"Because I'm an introverted piece of shit?" Elsa asked, taking a small bite of egg. Anna cocked her head to the side

"You aren't a piece of shit. An introvert maybe." Anna smiled warmly, "A damn cute one at least."

Elsa felt a small blush creep over her cheeks at Anna's words, "You think I'm cute?"

Anna's smile cracked into a wide grin, "Have you seen yourself? You're a total knockout hun! Dang when Kristoff told me that you were going to let me move in I was almost sad that I was with Hans!"

"What makes you think that I'm interested in girls?" Elsa tilted her head;_I think I'm getting the hang of this "friends" thing_

"I- uh- I'm not sure. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is into chicks in some way or another. Sorry about that." Anna stumbled over her words, her cheeks violently red with embarrassment

"I'm totally kidding. I'm hella gay. Just thought I'd try to give you a scare." Elsa smiled, spearing a sausage patty on her fork.

"Haha, real funny." Anna rolled her eyes and the two girls slipped into silence once more

"You also never really do your dishes." Elsa spoke up, breaking the quiet

"Because you always do them." Anna smiled at the blonde

"I shouldn't have to, you are your own person, you should take care of your own stuff." Elsa said flatly

"Glad to know you feel that way. I'll make sure I'll do them from now on." Anna's face dropped a bit

"That was a little uncalled for, I apologize. Dishes just bug the shit out of me, I hate doing them for myself, let alone other people." Anna stayed quiet, "And like I said, I'm not great with people. I've only ever had one friend and she kinda dropped me when I came out."

"That sucks pretty bad. Sorry about that."

Elsa shrugged, taking a bit out of the sausage patty, "Nothing _you_ could have done to help it."

The girls fell into another silence until they finished eating.

"That was great, Anna. Thank you." Elsa slid her plate into the sink along with Anna's.

"Do you want me to get those?" Anna pointed to the dishes in the sink

"Nah, I'll get them later." Elsa sighed, turning towards her room

Anna grasped her shoulder before she could turn away, "Are things going to change?"

"What do you mean?" Elsa scrunched her eyebrows together

"I really enjoy your company, and I don't want to lose it." Anna smiled at Elsa and nervously pulled a stray hair behind her ear

"Well, I've got to go to the store today. We need more toilet paper, do you want to come with me?" Elsa ran a hand through her bangs

"You really are bad with people aren't you?"

"I'm not known for dishonesty." Elsa turned out of Anna's grip and walked to her room, "We'll leave in 15 minutes, be ready."

"Okay _mom_." Anna giggled and sighed contentedly

~(-_-)~

"Why are we going to Wal-Mart? There is a dollar store right around the corner from our apartment."

"I like the soft, expensive, toilet paper." Elsa answered, pulling into a spot near the front of the store.

"That's very good." Anna replied

"What the hell does that even mean?" Elsa asked incredulously

"Huh?"

" 'That's very good?' What the heck does that mean? Are you applauding my toilet paper preferences?"

"Are you offended by that?"

"Maybe." The two laughed and Elsa quickly maneuvered her way to the isle. Grabbing the brand she was looking for, the pair headed toward the self-checkout and then left the store.

Elsa slid into the driver's seat and glanced at Anna sitting next to her. The red head laughed,

"What are you looking at?"

"I don't know. I'm kind of bored." Elsa replied, tensing her hands around the steering wheel

"I know what we should do!" Anna's face cracked with glee, her blue eyes lighting up brightly

"Enlighten me." Elsa deadpanned, trying to deflate Anna's elation

"We should go on a road trip!" Anna was nearly bouncing up and down in her seat

"No." Elsa set the car in reverse and pulled out of the spot

"Why not?" Anna turned to the blonde, sporting puppy dog eyes

"I don't have that kind of gas money. Plus, where would we go?"

"We could circumnavigate the United States! Just go_everywhere_!" Anna's eyes lit up again

"Did you miss the bit about me being _broke as fuck_?" Elsa trained her eyes on Anna

"My parents gave me a trust fund for my 18thbirthday. I can use it whenever I want and I told myself to wait for the right time. I was going to pay for my wedding with it, but we could totally do the road trip!"

"I don't know Anna. We literally lived in the same apartment, which was less than 800 square feet, for 3 years and only had a conversation _today._"

Anna stared intently and the blonde sitting next to her, "Please. Can we at least go to Memphis?"

"Memphis? What's there?"

"Best BBQ in the nation." Anna said matter-of-factly

"That's like a 10 hour drive from here."

"Damn Florida." Anna crossed her arms and blew her bangs away from her forehead heatedly

Elsa slammed her hand on the steering wheel and turned to Anna, "Let's do it."

"Really?" Anna smiled

"Yea. I don't see why not."

"This is _awesome_!"

Elsa smiled and pulled out of the parking lot towards the interstate.

_What the fuck am I doing?_

**_AN: I apologize if the format is a little off and f it's kind weird, my computer is frazzing so I had to use my phone to post this. Love all you little readers who made it this far and I hope that you'll stick around. :)_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN: Why hello there. This actually came up faster than I expected, so hurray! There was a reviewer who said that they really felt like we didn't know the characters and I understand what they meant. I plan on showing off their characters as they get to know each other along this trip, if that makes any sense at all. So there we go, and you could also follow me on tumblr at canicallyouelphie if you feel so inclined…_**

_This was a bad idea. This was a very, very bad idea_. Elsa turned her blinker on and moved into the left lane to pass a minivan going 10 miles per hour under the speed limit.

"This is awesome! Haven't you ever wanted to go on a road trip like this? Just spur of the moment?" Anna smiled widely and turned to Elsa who stared intently at the road

"Uh, no, not really." Elsa tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as the traffic slowed to a stop

"Why not? Have you never wanted to do something crazy?" Anna shoved Elsa lightly on the shoulder

"Not really. I was really content in the safety and comfort of my room with my laptop and phone charger." Elsa glanced into the back seat, "We don't even have phone chargers. Or food. Or clothes."

"Soooo? What's your point?" Anna giggled

"We literally only have toilet paper. We can't eat toilet paper. We can't wear toilet paper anywhere where it would be socially acceptable. What are we going to do?"

"It isn't like we're going to Memphis for a week! We're just going for the day." Anna shrugged her shoulders and unlocked her phone, "Do you have an Instagram?"

"Of course not! And Anna, we left at 5:15 and it's a 10 hour drive, so we're going to get there at like 3:00 or so in the morning." Elsa groaned and let her head drop to the steering wheel, "And we've only been on this god forsaken highway for an hour!"

"It'll be okay. The fun of a road trip is spending time with your friend in the car on the way there. It is the journey, not the destination."

"That sounds like a John Mayer line." Elsa glanced sideways at Anna who smiled

"How about in a few hours we switch. We can stop at a gas station, you can pick up a travel charger, some beef jerky, and a few bottles of soda then I'll drive the next leg. Sound good?"

"Really? Beef jerky? All that stuff does is give you bad breath and get stuck in your teeth." Elsa rolled her eyes

"It's cheap if you get the right brand and it fills you up for a long time. Quit complaining and be happy. Traffic is moving again." Anna pointed to the road ahead of Elsa and she started moving the car again

~(-_-)~

"Where are we?" Elsa pulled her car into a spot near the door to a Chevron and turned off the ignition. The sudden stop had woken Anna up from her sleep and she rubbed her eyes quickly, her speech slurred.

"We're just outside Tallahassee. I got hungry so I decided to stop a little early, and there's a Wendy's on the side of here." Elsa unclicked her seatbelt and climbed out of the car, quickly followed by a dazed Anna.

~(-_-)~

"I'm surprised that you haven't turned us around yet." Anna said, stuffing a french fry in her mouth

"Did you think I would chicken out on you? I said we were going to Memphis, so we're going to Memphis." Elsa answered, lifting her sandwich to her mouth and taking a bite

"I know you said that, but you seem like a wishy washy person. Like you never truly have what you want to do set in your mind y'know? Almost like there's this cloud of self-doubt floating over your head."

"I know what you mean, trust me." Elsa took another bite of her sandwich before setting it down and wiping her hands off.

"You shouldn't do that y'know." Anna chirped from behind a half chewed chicken nugget

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

"It's only half full mom." Anna swallowed her food and stuck her tongue out at the blonde

"What shouldn't I do?"

"Doubt yourself. You have so much going for you and you're too cool of a person, from what I've seen anyway, to cross yourself like that. It's like you're tying your own noose."

"That's funny because sometimes I feel like I'm dying." Elsa let out a small laugh

"No," Anna threw a French fry across the table, "That was a metaphor. No dying on my watch. You understand?"

"Who's being the mom now, feisty pants?" Elsa smiled at Anna's frustrated expression and she got up to refill her cup.

"You ready to go?" Anna asked as she was pouring the rest of her french fries into her chicken nugget container

"Sure. You want to switch drivers now or later?" Elsa grabbed her jacket off of the back of the chair and slid it over her shoulders. She accidentally caught her braid in the fabric and had to pull her hair out and around to her front again

"We can switch if you want. That way we won't get too tired. I usually have to pee a lot on the road to that's good too." Anna chirped happily, almost skipping toward the door of the gas station

~(-_-)~

"Anna can I see your driver's license?" Elsa said from the passenger seat

"Why do you want to see that? I look horrible in the picture." She laughed quietly but Elsa pressed further

"Well, because I'm having a hard time believing that you _have_ one." Anna made a huffed sound

"I do to have a license…" Elsa cocked an eyebrow at the red haired girl, "It just may have been revoked by the state trooper who pulled me over after my third reckless driving ticket."

"You're 23! What reckless shit have you had time to do?"

"We aren't all introverts, Elsa. You know some people younger than me have lived more than you probably ever will." Anna teased

"I don't care that I haven't ever done anything drastic. I am content to be alone with my thoughts, my laptop, and the occasional text conversation." Elsa huffed, rolling her eyes

"Why are you so introverted? Did you like get made fun of in school or something?"

"I… I don't really want to talk about it now." Anna raised her eyebrows at Elsa, "Not now. Later, I promise."

"Okay, only if you're sure." Anna tapped her fingers on the steering wheel then slammed on the brakes suddenly nearly rear-ending the car in front of them

"I swear that you're going to kill us, Anna!" Elsa raised her voice, "Okay, so tell me about the three reckless driving tickets."

Anna sighed and launched into her story, "There was the time that Merida baked pot brownies. It was 2 years ago, I think, and I didn't know that they were not normal brownies and Kristoff just let me eat 3 of them."

"And you drove while you were stoned off your ass? And my jackass brother let you?!" Elsa scoffed

"I was an incapacitated young adult who made bad decisions." Anna mumbled quietly

"Huh? What was that?"

"I WAS AN INCAPACITATED YOUNG ADULT WHO MADE BAD DECISIONS!" Anna shouted at the blonde

"You still are!" Elsa busted into a fit of laughter and Anna reluctantly began to giggle at the sight of Elsa laughing so hard

Eventually the girls calmed down and traffic began to loosen up, "Okay, so what was the second time?"

"Okay the second time was when I was late for class and I was trying to text Kris and get him to take notes for me and trying to drink coffee at the same time and it just… didn't work out."

"And the third time?"

"The third time. Yea. I really don't want to talk about the third time?" Anna shifted her hands nervously on the steering wheel

"Oh no, since you brought it up I have to know. Spill it."

"I was driving my car and Hans was with me and we were coming back from a party and we got a little carried away." Anna answered sheepishly, a small blush filling her cheeks

"Oh. Okay." Elsa coughed and then cleared her throat, "That's good to know."

"We didn't like do anything too dirty, just he like, kept kissing me and riding my top up. My shorts may have been unbuttoned too, I don't remember. But what I do remember is when he-"

"Enough! Okay! I'm good. Great. That's enough talk of your sexual adventures." Elsa tried to hide the blush on her face but Anna saw the red coloring her cheeks

"I think we may be having a contest of who can blush the most." Anna giggled, casting a small glance Elsa's direction

"Is that a bad thing?" Fear etched it's way into Elsa's features

"No! Don't worry! I have chronic blushing, like anything makes me blush, it's horrible really."

"At least you look cute when you blush. I'm as white as snow so I look like a fucking tomato." Elsa rolled her eyes

"But whenever you blush it brings out your freckles."

"Nobody has ever noticed them before." Elsa smiled shyly

"Why not? They really give you that right amount of cuteness that is almost intolerable. But this whole lazy-punk thing you've got going on is kinda hot." Anna tilted her head

"I wear sweat shirts and black skinny jeans. That isn't punk. That is like a warped sense of punk that shitty grunge blogs on tumblr created. This is just lazy." Elsa deadpanned

"But it's hot on you. I called you hot. Why are you complaining?"

"Because I'm not punk."

"I think you are."

"But I'm _not_!"

"You would look hot as fuck with ear gauges."

"Those would only make me _slightly_ punk. There are so many factors, that I don't meet, to qualify as punk." Elsa answered, a slight of sarcasm bleeding into her words

"Why do you set the bar so high? You make it seem as if you aren't good enough for that." Anna's voice softened

"Don't turn this into a self-esteem issue. You were pressing me into a category that I didn't want to be in."

"Who doesn't want to be punk?" Anna asked, cocking an eyebrow at the blonde

"Me. I don't care about that. I want to be me." Elsa raised her voice

"That's good to hear."

"Are you my therapist now or something?"

"No, I'm just making sure that you're secure in who you are. Isn't that what friends do?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Oh, I forgot. Sorry." Anna cringed and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel

"That's okay."

"Hey! Do you want to play the alphabet game?" Anna turned excitedly to Elsa who jumped toward the wheel

"Pay attention!" Elsa pulled the wheel towards her body and peeled into the right lane, narrowly avoiding a semi who stopped suddenly in the lane that they previously occupied

"Oh, God. I'm sorry!"

"Just watch the road. You probably won't be driving much more often, Anna."

~(-_-)~

"How much longer are we going to be?" Elsa whined, dropping her head onto the window

"We're about 10 minutes outside of Montgomery."

"We're already in Alabama! Hell yea!"

"What is so great in Alabama?"

"Since we're stopping in Montgomery, we're going to make a quick pit stop."

"Where? What could possibly be interesting in this town?"

"The first Confederate White House!" Elsa squealed in excitement

"You're joking, right? Please tell me this is a joke. We are not going to the heart of bigoted, conservative, Baptist Hell. I reek of bisexual Elsa! They'll condemn me before I get out of the damn car! It'll be raining bibles!" Anna scoffed at the blonde, "Hallelujah!"

"For someone who isn't religious you sure do say hallelujah a lot."

"Who says I'm not religious?" Anna crossed her arms

"When have you ever gone to church?"

"You don't need to go to church to be religious." Anna answered in contempt

"You're afraid of bibles."

"I'm afraid of hypocrite Christians who use a book that is 3,000 years old to condemn an entire part of the human race. I thought Christians were supposed to "love thy neighbor and thy God" or something like that?" Anna added, annoyed

"It'll happen eventually. You just have to be patient and not be forceful. Think Ghandi. Channel your inner Ghandi Anna. Feel the good karma flow through your body and into your liberal views so that you don't do something that you'll wholly regret for the rest of your life." Elsa made a sweeping motion down her body as they pulled off the highway and stopped at a red light

"Shut up." Anna let out a dry chuckle

"Never. And just know that whenever we stop in Little Rock, we're going to the Clinton Library."

"The man whore president? And if we are going to take a real road trip, not just going to Memphis, we aren't going to Little Rock. How about Texas?"

"He isn't a man whore. Texas sounds fun I guess, it's hot as hell I hear though. A lot of amazing history there, all the battles with the Mexicans. Texas basically won us the western front y'know."

"Just because you have some perverted idea that America has a beautiful history doesn't mean we all do. Like, take a look at Canada, sure they gained independence later than we did but England practically raised them until they were ready to be on their own. We left home early and fucked up bad."

"America isn't fucked up. Sure, we recently hit hard times, but we're going onwards and upwards!"

"You'll never be able to get married." Anna said quietly

"Not like I'll find the right girl anyways." Elsa answered

"You're a catch Elsa!"

"It's not that, I just- I'm not good relationship material."

"Whatever, you'd make a great girlfriend." At Anna's words Elsa felt another warm blush crawl up her cheeks

**_AN: YOOOO So while I was procrastinating on writing this chapter I planned out the ENTIRE road trip route that they will be taking and they will go to Memphis, just really indirectly. I know that I've said this before, but I am so frigging excited for this whole story. I love road trips even though all I do is sleep in the car and I love Elsanna and fics that have them slowly falling in love are beautiful._**

**_Not that it's incredibly important but I created possibly one of the best playlists that I've ever made in my life on Spotify and I titled it "jamming" because I'm weird. So it is the collection of basically HSM 1-3, Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Camp Rock 1&2, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen (ofc). My name is the same on Spotify so if you are at all interested in that feel free to check it out_**


	3. AUTHOR'S NOTE

_**So if you couldn't tell by the title, this IS NOT an update and I am extremely disheartened to tell you all that. HOWEVER I AM NOT ABANDONING THIS STORY! My computer is completely out of whack until an unknown time in the future where I have money to fix it and I will likely NOT be able to update for several more weeks due to this issue. Thanks to everyone who is sticking with me through this and I promise with the coming of summer that these stories will continue in full force! Lots of love to you all!**_


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